The Basque are an interesting group; not only linguistically but also in terms of population genetics. I don't know if there is a high frequency of a particular haplogroup for the Basque. I know there are many studies going on with the Basque population.

I was interested in finding out about connections with U5 and the Basque. In checking out my mtDNA matches, I discovered I match an individual who is most probably Basque [the surnames are a BIG indicator].

What do we know about the Basque in terms of haplogroups? I am sure there are Basque individuals who would test out as U5, especially since they were in the "middle" of the move south, and then the return back north. Any info, or comments, or anything, will be appreciated.

sofiagelpi wrote:The Basque are an interesting group; not only linguistically but also in terms of population genetics. I don't know if there is a high frequency of a particular haplogroup for the Basque. I know there are many studies going on with the Basque population.

I was interested in finding out about connections with U5 and the Basque. In checking out my mtDNA matches, I discovered I match an individual who is most probably Basque [the surnames are a BIG indicator].

What do we know about the Basque in terms of haplogroups? I am sure there are Basque individuals who would test out as U5, especially since they were in the "middle" of the move south, and then the return back north. Any info, or comments, or anything, will be appreciated.

Yes, I'd be prepared to bet that you are correct there regarding Basques and U5, given the movements you refer to and the age of the haplogroup.

They ignored all other haplogroups, and thet did over 400 FMS test on haplogroup H. I disagree with the papers conclusions and think their approach was flawed.

OMG, Gail! I read the Behar article that is cited in the blog, and I had similar comments on the Behar article as well. I am not a geneticist, but a linguist by training, with a focus on sociolinguistic change. Language changes are like DNA mutations in that one has to "test" a larger sample to indeed conclude that a change is taking place, and where [generational, gender-related, socio-economic status related, etc.]. When I read articles like Behar's, I can follow the statistical analysis, as it is very similar to what we do. I have to say that the blogger did an awesome job organizing the data. In this fashion, it was easy to compare all the haplogoups tested, and to cmpare the H and U results. Interestingly enough, they are pretty much parallel. For example, in the central western Navarra region H1 came at 15% whereas U came at 15%. Isn't this important? I wonder why the scientists chose to focus on H? My biggest pet-peeve is that this article reflects results from studying the Franco-Cantabrian region, yet the Southern France sample is small if compared to the Cantabrian/Spanish sample.

The blogger goes on to say:

"U means obviously U(xK). Just using the same terminology from the paper. Again, I haven't got any time to explore how much of that U is U5b, U5a, U4 or other clades. This is in my opinion[:] the greatest shortcoming of the paper: ignoring U almost completely."

Starting from a rather unoriginal sample (four Basque provincial samples plus Cantabrians from nearby Valle del Pas) they make some noticeable discoveries on less common mtDNA lineages. First of all they find that haplogroups U5b and J1c have their highest densities among Basques (>10%).... Regarding U5b, a particular sublineage U5b1f is mentioned as being notably frequent among Basques and also found in other sub-Pyrenean populations (Crespillo et al. 2000; Martínez-Jarreta et al. 2000; Alfonso-Sánchez et al. 2008).

The highest apportion of U5b worldwide is in Northern Navarre (15.5%).